Tuesday, January 8, 2008Crosby top vote-getter, Red Wings with three in starting lineupAssociated Press

NEW YORK -- The Detroit Red Wings dominated the first half of the NHL season. Now they're taking over the All-Star Game, too. And Sidney Crosby is starting to do the same.

Crosby, the 20-year-old reigning NHL MVP, topped All-Star voting for the second straight year and will start again for the Eastern Conference, the league announced Tuesday.

The Pittsburgh Penguins captain, in his third NHL season, received 507,274 votes, nearly 200,000 more than anyone else in the East, and about 30,000 more than Western Conference leader Nicklas Lidstrom.

Detroit is the second team in two years to place three players in an All-Star starting lineup. The Buffalo Sabres did it a season ago for the East en route to the first Presidents' Trophy in franchise history.

Lidstrom, who received 477,787 votes, will partner with Calgary Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf on the blue line while Jarome Iginla -- also of the Flames -- plays up front with Zetterberg and Datsyuk.

Zetterberg and Datsyuk are among eight first-time All-Star starters. Iginla and Phaneuf, who have helped Calgary take over first place in the Northwest Division, are also set to make their initial starts.

Vancouver's Roberto Luongo got the starting nod in goal for the West.

Crosby, who entered Tuesday ranked fourth in the NHL with 57 points, got the most votes again but earned 318,509 fewer votes -- a 39 percent drop -- than he garnered for the 2007 game in Dallas when approximately 28 million ballots were cast.

Last year, Crosby at 19 years, five months, became the youngest player voted into the starting lineup since fan balloting began in 1986. He went on to be the NHL's youngest scoring champion with 120 points.

His linemates in Atlanta will be current scoring leader Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators right winger Daniel Alfredsson, both of whom will be making their first All-Star starts. Lecavalier is going to his third All-Star game, while Alfredsson will be playing in his fifth.

On defense will be fellow first-time starters Andrei Markov of the Montreal Canadiens and Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins. Markov is the only starter making his first All-Star appearance. Chara is going for the third time.

New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur was elected for the fourth time and will take part in his 10th All-Star Game, tying Lidstrom for the most among this year's starters. Lidstrom is in the starting lineup for the eighth time.

Surprisingly, the league's top two goal scorers, Ilya Kovalchuk of the Atlanta Thrashers (34 goals) and Washington's Alex Ovechkin -- tied with Iginla with 32 -- weren't elected to start for the East. Ovechkin was fifth in votes among forwards with 177,574, while Kovalchuk came in sixth with 173,629.

It is only fitting that Red Wings make up half the West's starting lineup because they are running away with the Central Division and have a commanding edge in the race for home-ice advantage throughout the conference playoffs.

Detroit entered play Tuesday with a mark of 32-8-3 and 67 points, 15 more than Dallas. The Red Wings became the first NHL team to win 30 games in the first half of the season when they beat the Stars last Wednesday.

Zetterberg was chosen to his second All-Star team, but sat out last year because of an injury. Phaneuf and Datsyuk are also All-Stars for the second time, and Iginla will play in his fourth.

Luongo was voted to the West starting lineup for the second straight season following his trade from Florida to Vancouver in 2006, and will be an All-Star for the third time.

Western Conference reserves, chosen by the NHL's hockey operations department along with general managers, will be announced Thursday. The rest of the Eastern Conference roster will be revealed Friday.

Goalie Chris Osgood, who signed a three-year contract extension on Wednesday, learned that he won’t be headed to Disneyland with his family over the six-day All-Star break. Instead, he’ll be a part of the Western Conference squad along with teammates Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsuyk, and coach Mike Babcock.

“At this stage of my career, this is pretty cool,” Osgood said.

Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo, who was announced as the West’s starter on Tuesday, has declined the offer to participate in the game to spend time with his pregnant wife.

It’s possible that he can start the game. Babcock indicated that he’s not sure of how the situation will work. St. Louis’s Manny Legace and San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov were also named Western Conference reserves on Thursday.

This is Osgood’s third selection to an all-star team. He played in the 1996 game, but sat-out in ’98 with an injury.